On Vacation

I'm in Los Angeles for a long weekend, visiting friends. It's been a nice break from the house renovations and other craziness that I've had going on at home lately. Right now I'm staying with the friends for whom I stitched the wedding sampler that is pictured in my previous post. I'm happy to report that it's hanging prominently in their living room. I'll also have an opportunity to take a picture of one of the other projects I stitched.

I was hoping to get some stitching done on the 5.5 hour flight out here. No such luck. I and about 20 other adults got the pleasure of sharing the flight with not one, but two, school groups making their way back to the west coast. While they weren't really acting badly, they were loud and a bit more active than a planeful of a regular mix of travellers. Everyone was very happy when the flight attendants (stewardesses is a much more fun word to type, btw) turned the movie on earlier than planned and then also let us watch a second movie.

I haven't made any further progress on my March SAL ornament, the flower basket. It requires a bunch of floss changes for the flowers, and I just haven't been in the mood for it. Since I wasn't working on it, I finally gave myself permission to start another project. I finally found the bunny pattern for the April SAL. It's a lot of color blocking, and it's going together quick. I started it last Sunday and have finished about half of it already. Just what I needed to get the stitching juices flowing again.

Wedding Samplers I've Stitched

Anna's Lists have made me think about all the projects I've completed since I started stitching in the late 1980s. There have been bunches. Despite the fact that I am generally a very organized person, I don't have good records about my stitching projects. I started a notebook at some point, but I was horrible about keeping up with it, and now I'm not sure where it is.

Having started a list from memory, I think I've stitched 11 wedding samplers and two smaller wedding gifts (a music box lid and a bread cloth). Unfortunately, I only have pictures of one of my wedding projects. The good news is that I can obtain photographs of most of the rest of them. I may have the charts for all but one of them.

This was stitched during the winter of 2006-2007 for a friend of mine that I've known since kindergarten. The pattern comes from the June 2000 JCS magazine.

Communicating at Work

As a follow up to my post about how to run a meeting, I point you in the direction of 10 Tools to Rev Up Your Business and Personal Communication. I found it very interesting.

Happy Easter

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

When will the TV schedule be back on track?

All fall, I was glued to my TV. I usually don't get sucked into new series until they're at least a season or two old. This year was the exception. We were watching many a new show in the fall line up. There was something on just about every night that we wanted to watch. Granted a lot of these were in the science fiction and fantasy category, shows that often don't make it past a season or two anyway, but still...

All I wanted for Christmas this year was a DVR, which I received. The poor thing has barely been used.

I've not seen a new episode of any of our favorites from the fall yet. We've half-heartedly watched both episodes of Canterbury Law so far, only because they're new and there's nothing else on. I've seen all of the movies I'm interested in that are being offered on cable this month. I've been sick for over a week now. My head hurts too much for reading or stitching for any length of time. All I want to do is veg on my couch in front of the TV with 500 channels AND THERE'S NOTHING ON!!!!

When, oh when, will my TV be normal again? Please, oh please, let it be soon.

My Niece's Sampler

After posting last night, I realized that I hadn't seen my younger niece's birth sampler in a while and that I probably hadn't worked on it since November. This made me curious, and I went looking for it. I found it tucked in a bag on top of the dresser in my craft room. Along with it were the Raspberry Parfait and Old Brick sampler threads I'd been missing when I wanted to stitch my heart ornament for February.

I was right in guessing that I was about 2/3 of the way done. When I pulled it out last night, everything but the two hearts had been stitched. Now I just need to add my niece's details and it will be done. Yea!

A Child was Born by Lizzie-Kate
on 32 ct. Mist. Blue Belfast
with GAST threads, but not the ones recommended

A New Project

I started a new project while I was sick the last few days. Being home during the daylight is conducive to stitching, although I did spend a lot of time napping too.

I'm working on the North Star Sampler from the Sweetheart Tree as a birth sampler for one of my nephews. Right now, I only have some of the viney parts at the top done, and it's not much to see.

Eventually, I'm going to stitch the Bluebells Sampler for another nephew, brother to the first. In both cases, I'm going to replace the recommended charm with a baby bootie charm.

I know, I know. This violates the Selfish Stitching in 2008 mantra. With the ornaments, I've made a good start on the S.S., and I needed a bigger project. Since I didn't have any bigger projects for myself calling loudly, I decided to work on these.

Also, I'm way, way behind on the birth samplers. At the moment, I have 6 niephlets -- 2 nieces and 4 nephews. All of them are under the age of 10. I have completed exactly two birth samplers, one for my older niece and one for my youngest nephew. Since all the niephlets except my youngest nephew belong to my sister's blended family, my sister has been bugging me about doing the rest of them.

I have the sampler for my younger niece about 2/3 of the way done. If I'm a very dedicated stitcher, I will be able to finish stitching the remaining four this year. (I even have the pattern for the last one chosen.) So that's my goal as of now. Wish me luck.